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I found this Myopa near nests of Andrena clarkella (3/3/2008, Spa, Belgium, bad weather very cold:8?C).
Size : 11 mm from head to end of the wings.
Could it be M.tessellatipennis?

They were three Andrena clarkella with a cut and empty abdomen. Could it be in relation with the Myopa?

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pic 2

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pic 3

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pic 4

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pic 5

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pic 6

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Andrena clarkella (near nests) with cut abdomen

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Wow, this is great! I never heard of a recording like this before... I sent it to an Andrena specialist.
Looking at the long erect hairs on the tip of the abdomen, I think the Myopa is vicaria, but I am not sure. Vicaria is an extremely early species, even if 3/3 is very early indeed. Would need a specimen in hand to make a certain ID on this species.

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Myopa are always awesome. :) I think they are the only genus that can support cold temperatures among the conopids.
I will seek carefully for bees/wasps. :)

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Thank you
When I found the Andrena, they were still alive. The legs moved very slowly.

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Interesting... the Andrena must have been infested one year earlier!

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The picture could show Myopa tessellatipennis - for a sfe identification I would need a better picture of the wing. I would be very surprised if it turns out that the Myopa emerged from those bees. But this should be easily to proof - there will be the exuvium within the abdomen of the Andrena if the Myopa emerged.

Jens-Hermann

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Does these others photos of the wings help ? What features do you try to see ?
Today, the Myopa was nearly at trhe same place. Weather very cold (4?C), and - 5?C during the night. The night after I found it, it began to snow (10cm) and yesterday the snow was still there.

For the Andrena clarkella, you are right, there are no exuvium within the abdomen.
An idea of what could happened to them ?

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wings 2

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Andrena clarkella

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is it possible that exuvium fall in the ground?

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It is realy M. tessellatipennis. At the attached picture you can see the differences between wings of the tesacea group (fig. 1) and the polystigma group (fig. 2). The wing of your fly belongs to the polystigma group and then it has to be tessellatipennis.

There has been just been published a revision of the tesacea group at Zootaxa where the identification is discussed in detail.

I would exspect the exuvium in the broken tip of the abdomen that cannot be seen at photo.

Jens-Hermann

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Jens-Hermann, what about vicaria ?
Is it testacea group or polystigma group ?


Theo

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Hello Christine
From my limited experience, this would be typical of predation by a Cicindelidae. Sounds early, but have you seen any yet this year in that neighbourhood ?

Philippe

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Thanks Philippe,
I haven't yet see Cicindelidae, but I'll be careful.

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Dear Theo!

M. vicaria belongs to the polystigma group, too. You are right that it could be the species, too. At first I excluded the species because of the missing long black pile at the genae but perhaps that is only a result of the digital photos?

Jens-Hermann

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To me, Andre has a point.
The hairs on abdomen are long. Moreover, vicaria is clearly the earliest species, at least in The Netherlands.


Theo

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Thank you very much for the ID.
I've read in the key of M.van Veen that M.vicaria has tergite 5 with hairs at an angle of 90 degrees. As I saw it again yesterday, I took some photos to try to show that feature.
The length of the body is exactly 8mm.

They were again 3 A.clarkella female with empty abdomen, but with only a little hole (2 or 3mm) at the end of the abdomen. They were alive on the ground.

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In this picture you can see the long hairs on the gena (if gena is the same as the part Tachinologists call parafacialia).

Which definitely suggests vicaria.


Theo

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Thanks Theo

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Thank you :)

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To be clear: I wrote 'suggest', not '?s', like to hear Jens-Hermann first.
But in all circumstances great first call by Andre.


Theo

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Thank you ;)